Forty-four-year-old Father Alessandro Santoro, a priest in Florence, is getting an unsolicited vacation! It wouldn’t have anything to do with his performing a transgender marriage, would it?

Indeed!

Despite criticism from the Catholic Church, Santoro performed the ceremony between Fortunato Talotta, a 58-year-old biological male, and Sandra Alvino, a 64-year-old MTF woman who transitioned some 30 years ago. Now his boss — Florence Archbishop Giuseppe Betori, who called the wedding “devoid of value because of the absence of the necessary components of a religious marriage” — has invited Santoro to take some time off to … reflect.

Reflect on binding two people in love and matrimony? Yeah.

But kudos to Santoro, who’s standing by his decision: It was “not an act of rebellion [but rather] an act of loyalty to my congregation, to the church and to the people that I love… It was my duty.”

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7 Comments

Blenden

Christianity, the wonderful world of make believe. Complete with a free vacation for doing a trans wedding. The perks are perking up? Wonder if that came with free poker chips and a second suite for the priest’s BMF.

October 29, 2009 at 10:10am

reluctantcommenter

seems the church was awful quick to punish this trans marrying priest. they should have been so quick to punish child molesting priests. oh well!

October 29, 2009 at 10:10am

Blenden

“Punishment” is the “churches” middle name. How on Earth would you control employee unless you could yank their emotional chain on a consistent basis and have all their money at your personal disposal.

October 29, 2009 at 10:10am

Keith Kimmel

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.” — Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)

Truer words…

October 29, 2009 at 10:10am

dontblamemeivotedforhillary

Italy matters because….?

October 29, 2009 at 6:10pm

Nikki H

Fr. Santoro is in good company. The religious leaders of the day rejected Christ as well. I applaud his sense of decency and morality in spite of the Nazi-like leaders in the Roman Catholic “Church”. The Christian Church has been the root of anti-GLBT bigotry for centuries. Maybe courageous men like Fr. Santoro will get these bigots to reconsider their actions, which is tantamount to hate and intolerance of part of the diversity of God’s creation. The Vatican is on the wrong side of this issue.

First off, the priest did not perform a “transgender wedding.” That comment is extremely insulting. He simply performed a wedding between a woman and a man. Second, to refer to a woman who is 30 years post-op as “transgender” is also insulting unless you know specifically that she identifies as such. Many who are transsexual or, as is increasingly preferred, who have Harry Benjamin Syndrome, consider the term “transgender” to be highly offensive. We do not change your gender, we simply corrected a birth defect that resulted in our physical genitalia being at odds with the sexual differentiation of our brains.